Volunteers rescue a Jewish headstone used to pave a street in the western Ukraine city Lviv, one of up to 100 headstones discovered during roadwork in the centre of the city. (Marla Raucher Osborn, Rohatyn Jewish Heritage)

(JTA) – Volunteers have rescued dozens of Jewish headstones used to pave a street in the western Ukraine city Lviv.

“The whole street is made from matzevot,” Sasha Nazar, director of the Lviv Volunteer Center of the Hesed Arieh All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation told Jewish Heritage Europe, using the Hebrew word for gravestones. He said he was notified about the discovery last week, after city workers began roadwork on the street, vul. Barvinok in central Lviv. The Lviv Volunteer Center organized volunteers to work at the site this week to rescue the headstones. [Read more…]

Actors Paul Spera, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s grandson, who played Lorenzo, left, and Ned Eisenberg, who played one of the Shylocks. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

VENICE, Italy (JTA) – Last week, an international, multilingual cast performed Shakespeare’s controversial play, “The Merchant of Venice,” in the secluded main plaza of the city’s historic Jewish Ghetto. It was the first time the play was performed in the iconic location, where some of the action takes place.

Enclosed by tall tenements and the arched windows of 16th-century synagogues, audiences – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg among them – gathered to see six sold-out performances of “The Merchant in Venice,” a production of the Compagnia de’ Colombari theatre company and Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University. The six performances were part of a year-long commemoration marking the 500th anniversary of the impostion of the Ghetto. [Read more…]

Young visitors entering the Isaak Jakubowicz Synagogue in Krakow during the Night of the Synagogues in the wee hours of the morning, June 5, 2016. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) – For the sixth year in a row, the seven synagogues in Krakow’s historic Jewish district, Kazimierz, opened their doors for 7@Nite – or the Night of the Synagogues, a one-night mini-festival aimed at bolstering Jewish pride and promoting Jewish awareness among the public.

Each synagogue – from the Gothic Old Synagogue, now a Jewish historical museum, to the ornate 19th century Tempel Synagogue, used for both services and cultural events – hosted an exhibit, concert, film or other event illustrating contemporary Jewish culture in Poland and around the world. [Read more…]

(JTA) – When Pope Francis crosses the Tiber River to visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue on Sunday, he’ll become the third pontiff in history to do so. But his 1.5-mile journey to the towering Tempio Maggiore shows that what was once unthinkable is now the norm. [Read more…]